


Going My Way?

by mylordshesacactus



Series: The Barrissoka Fusion You Never Knew You Wanted [1]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types, The Aristocats (1970)
Genre: Ahsoka Tano is too good and pure for this sinful galaxy, Communication Failure, F/F, Meet-Cute, The Plot Of The Aristocats But In Space, Undercover, look I lost control of my life a long time ago this was inevitable, poor communication kills, this is an aristocats AU, um, why, why did I write an aristocats AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-12
Updated: 2017-01-12
Packaged: 2018-09-16 23:48:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9295052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mylordshesacactus/pseuds/mylordshesacactus
Summary: Shipwrecked and stranded on a remote agricultural planet, Barriss Offee doesn't dare reveal her identity as a Jedi for fear of drawing unwanted attention that might endanger the younglings in her care. Enter the charming, compassionate young spacer Ashla, who drops everything to take the group under her protection and asks nothing in return, as Barriss grows more and more unhappy with the necessity of lying to a young woman who's been nothing but honest with them.Meanwhile, Ahsoka Tano and her master are on an undercover mission. She really wishes she could tell the scared young mother she's taken in that she's a Jedi, but, well. The mission has to come first.





	

**Author's Note:**

> In the course of my [continuing mission](http://mylordshesacactus.tumblr.com/tagged/disney-barrissoka-aus) to prove that I can turn any Disney movie into a Barrissoka AU, tumblr user sniperct implied that I might not be able to pull off an Aristocats AU.
> 
> So here we are.

The ship’s hull screamed and groaned like a dying thing as it tumbled out of hyperspace.

Barriss gritted her teeth, stumbling heavily against a bulkhead as she fought her way into the cockpit. The situation did not look much better from up here; she hadn’t realized the extent of the damage caused by the pirates’ boarding harpoons.

Barriss Offee did her research, and the best and thus standard practice for a smash-and-grab boarding raid in transit between hyperspace lanes called for bulkhead shots. Damage to the engines could result in an explosion just as likely to destroy the attackers as the victims, and was thus avoided. Unfortunately, someone had apparently done less research than her, or else they’d missed. It was a miracle the ship had even survived the emergency transit from lightspeed; it would never make a crash landing on the planet below with this kind of damage.

Her fear was un-Jedi-like, but it wasn’t the possibility of death that scared her. Besides, she corrected herself as she frantically vented heat from the engines and flipped toggles, shutting down all power not necessary for steering in an attempt to lower demands on the system. She’d been working with Master Unduli on those kinds of thoughts. There was no shame in fear, Barriss reminded her insecurities. Only in giving in to it.

It was only natural, to be afraid of losing cargo this precious.

She smacked the comm controls; the split-second it took almost cost her control of the ship, and she braced herself grimly as she wrestled it back into line. The emergency lights flickered as power threatened to fail entirely.

“Younglings,” she said clearly into the microphone. She tried to picture her Gathering trio, scared and alone in the dark of the cargo hold but trusting her to get them to safety. “The boarders have been dealt with. Please find a life pod and deploy it. I’ll be right behind you.”

 _“Yes, Padawan Offee!”_ Tai Uzuma’s voice was high, but steady. “ _But what about—”_

“What about you?” another voice demanded. This one was not distorted over a comm channel, and it was entirely too familiar for that fact to be surprising.

“Caleb,” she said, as calmly as possible with the command console blinking three different fire warnings at her. “I distinctly remember instructing you to stay in the cargo hold with your fellow younglings.”

“Yes, Barriss,” Caleb Dume insisted, “but there was an explosion and I thought you might be hurt.”

“So you disobeyed a direct order?”

“I heard Knight Skywalker does that all the time and he’s gonna be a Master soon!”

Muttering something under her breath about Anakin Skywalker that was probably unfair, seeing as she’d never met him, Barriss admitted defeat and locked the starship on a trajectory that would take it out of the planet’s orbit if it didn’t explode. It was only polite, not to rain flaming wreckage down upon the heads of whatever natives this planet might host.

“Tai,” she said into the comm. “Sammo. Launch pod. Caleb and I will use the other. Do not initiate a landing sequence until I tell you to, do you understand?” She waited long enough to get a double affirmative before switching the comm off and stumbling back out of the cockpit. “Caleb! Come with me, youngling. Quickly.”

Caleb nodded quickly and ran along in her wake, jumping forward to catch her when another ominous shudder wracked the hull and almost sent her skidding down the hallway.

She spared a moment to smile at him before catching the hatch to the life pod. Caleb seemed determined to see her to safety first, so Barriss gripped him by the collar and shoved him through the hole like a Senate guard making an unceremonious arrest. He protested loudly. She ignored him.

“Launch,” she said the moment she’d climbed into the pod and sealed the hatch. Caleb’s pride was clearly still wounded, but he pressed the launch button without further complaint, and Barriss finally let herself breathe as the sparking, ruined starship sped away from them.

“Should we contact the other pod?” Caleb asked.

Barriss took a moment to center herself, breathed in for a count of seven, and let the breath out slowly.

“Quite,” she told him. He visibly relaxed at her calmer, more natural tone, and moved over to let her access the controls. “Younglings,” she said into the comm. “Flash your rescue lights, please. We’ll come to you.”

A pair of spotlights flared twice in the darkness, and Barriss’ fingers flew over the pod’s rudimentary navicomputer to calculate an intercept trajectory.

“Very good,” she told the other pod. “I have you. Now, bring up the landing sequence. Ready? Very well done! Initiate on my mark. Three…”

* * *

Ahsoka sighed and threw a synthrubber ball at the ceiling.

“Remind me again what we’re doing here, Skyguy?”

Anakin caught the ball as she tossed it again, shooting her a disapproving look when she rose up on her elbows to glare at him.

“We’re putting a stop to a drug-smuggling ring that’s operating off this planet, Snips, and don’t call me that, we’re undercover.”

Ahsoka rolled her eyes.

“Right,” she drawled. “Sorry, _Lars.”_

“Shut up, _Ashla.”_

“Hey,” she protested. “That’s a good name!”

“You got too ambitious,” Anakin complained. _Don’t get snippy with me,_ Ahsoka thought uncharitably. “Anyway, I don’t care if you’re bored. We’ve got to get people to trust us before they’ll tell us anything about these bacta smugglers.”

Ahsoka used the Force to steal her ball back, and bounced it restlessly off a wall.

“Why is it even a bad thing, Master?” she asked. “I mean, it’s not like it’s spice. Bacta is medicine. What’s wrong with letting people transport it?”

Anakin sighed.

“For one thing,” he said, “a lot of their stock is gonna be stolen from Republic transports. As, uh... _mechanics_...protecting those medical convoys is part of our job.”

“Yeah,” Ahsoka said slowly. “I guess, Master—” Anakin gave her a look again, and she corrected herself. “I guess that’s true. But if it’s getting to people who can’t normally afford it, isn’t that good? It’s not like we have a bacta shortage. And plenty of it is being made from scratch.”

“That’s part of the problem,” Anakin said patiently. “Legal bacta’s processed according to strict guidelines, and there’s no way to regulate the quality of bacta the Republic doesn’t know anything about. If it’s not prepared properly, it won’t work, and if a hospital thinks its stock is legal they won’t test it before it’s needed. People can die.”

Ahsoka was listening in spite of herself; the mission briefing had only told her what the plan was, not why illegal bacta was dangerous in the first place. It didn’t have any narcotic properties for any known sentient species, it wasn’t poisonous, and it was cheap enough that even small hospitals on incredibly poor planets could afford to keep a few tanks, so price-cutting wasn’t a major factor.

Anakin nodded when he saw her attention, and continued. “And whether it’s stolen or just unregulated, it’s not being registered with the Republic, and that means it’s _probably_ going to people we don’t want running their own medical facilities. You can torture someone pretty bad and then throw them in a bacta tank, and they’ll be fit to do it again in a few hours. If a Hutt’s buying all their bacta from official sources, that’ll look suspicious. But if we never know they’re buying it…”

Ahsoka blanched. She hadn’t even thought of that, and now she tried to think of other implications.

“It also means they can charge whatever they want for it,” she realized. “We can afford to enforce low prices for civilian hospitals, but if they think they’re already dealing with a legitimate business, a hospital might be paying twice what they should for something the Republic could have given them. And it might not even be any good.”

Anakin grinned proudly. “There you go. They’re out here exploiting people at best and probably propping up pirates and gangsters, so we’re gonna put a stop to it.”

“Assuming we ever learn anything.”

Anakin made a face but didn’t argue the point.

“I’m gonna start asking more questions tomorrow,” he decided. “But I want you to try to get the lay of the land in case anyone gets suspicious. Just...take a walk or something. Actually, take a speeder bike into that section of the mountains we didn’t manage to cover on our way in. Patrol, find landmarks. That way if they spook and try to move we can figure out what’s different.”

Ahsoka snorted.

“Skyguy,” she said, “if it gets me out of here for once, I am all for it.”

* * *

Barriss still didn’t know what planet they were on. She couldn’t make much of a judgement about its biome makeup either; given some time she would have researched the location extensively and been able to recognize native flora on sight, but snap judgements about wilderness survival and climate were not her specialty. Still, she was a Jedi and a senior padawan; she knew enough to realize that they had gotten very lucky.

Not that she felt particularly lucky with icy rain driving into her face, but it could have been much worse.

They had crashed in a mountain range, that much was clear. But these were old mountains, low and flat, worn down by time and weather; not the cliff faces of Naboo, or Mirial’s sky-piercing behemoths, or even Alderaan’s sweeping, beautiful peaks. And as cold as the rain might be, the climate itself was temperate. In sunlight, Barriss suspected it would be quite warm, which was only a slight comfort at the moment but certainly something to thank the Force for.

She had felt profoundly stupid for not thinking to bring her snow gear from Ilum into the pod with her. What if they had come out of orbit over _Pantora?_ The younglings would have died of exposure before sunrise.

Barriss shivered and felt another fervent wave of appreciation for their luck. Temperate mountains, she could work with. Harsh desert or ice planet, or one of those awful jungle words, would have posed a much more deadly challenge. It didn’t make the current situation any less serious, however.

Thunder rolled in the distance as she picked her way up the mountain.

“Younglings!” she called. “Tai! Sammo!”

“SAMMO!” Caleb shouted. “TAI! WHERE ARE YOU GUYS?”

“ _Caleb?”_ Sammo Quid’s voice was shaken. _“Caleb! We’re down here!”_

Barriss put out a hand to stop the youngling from rushing after his friend’s voice.

“I don’t want to end up with three of you lost,” she said as kindly as she could. “Be careful and stay close to me. We’ll find them.”

Caleb nodded.

A flash of lightning gave her some insight into what had happened. While her and Caleb’s pod had settled mostly upright against the mountainside, the other had glanced off a peak and tumbled down into a gully. She was once more fiercely grateful that these mountains were broad and gentle and had no sharp vertical drops.

The gully was steep enough as it was; Barriss braced herself almost flat against the ground and felt her way carefully down the incline.

“Padawan Offee!” Tai called, relief thick in her voice as she pulled herself up out of the ditch to Barriss’ side. “We’re—we’re over here. We’re fine. I think Sammo hit his head.”

“Sammo’s fine.” The blue-green Twi’lek’s voice was still shaky, but significantly calmer now that they were back together and on solid ground. He even managed a crooked smile as he followed Tai; unlike his human friend he chose to just crawl on his hands and knees rather than try to balance on the slope. “I’m just this way naturally.”

Caleb laughed and pushed Sammo’s shoulder. Tai, feeding on her friend’s sudden positive energy, grinned as well.

“Maybe a hit on the head would be an improvement!” she suggested.

Barriss’ lips twitched as they devolved into a light, friendly tussle, but she cleared her throat.

“Younglings,” she said, calling them back to order. “I’m glad we’re all safe. Now, we need to take steps to—”

With a crackling BOOM and a flash of blinding white like the seams of the galaxy tearing apart, a nearby tree exploded. Sammo screamed and dove into Barriss’ side; Tai cried out in pain, and Barriss bit her tongue to keep from echoing the girl as splinters buried themselves in her hands and cheek. Her head rang with the shockwave as much as the noise, but after a long minute of high-pitched whistling in her ears she determined that there was no damage.

“Shelter, younglings,” she said, smiling as reassuringly as she could. Their eyes were still wide with fear, but they looked up at her with complete trust. Trust she could feel the weight of as she began to really think about how to get these children back to the safety of the Temple. Barriss reached out and brushed Tai’s hair back from her face and helped her stand.

“Back into the life pod,” she decided. “When the rain stops, we’ll try to make contact with the Temple.”

For the younglings, that seemed to be enough. They piled into the life pod and, with only minimal squabbling, managed to dig out the pod’s shock blanket from its storage compartment and curl up in a wet pile under it. Within minutes, their breathing started to slow and even out.

Barriss wondered if _she’d_ ever been able to fall asleep so easily as a youngling.

Moving carefully so as not to wake them, she shifted closer to the hatch. She’d sealed it again in the hopes of conserving heat, and that side of the pod was a bit warmer than the viewport side; but not by much, and the younglings were using the only thing resembling a blanket that they had access to.

The situation was far from desperate just yet. But when the world outside the half-buried viewport started to lighten, Barriss Offee wasn’t surprised that she was still awake to meet it.

* * *

Ahsoka opened the throttle on her borrowed speederbike and laughed into the wind.

The corvette had a much more sophisticated sensor array than she and Anakin were about to let on to any of the locals, but they couldn’t exactly make long passes over the mountains without arousing suspicion. And since “Ashla”’s wanderlust and tendency to get restless after operating from space for so long was common knowledge, nobody would think there was anything strange about her taking off for the day once her employer’s back was turned.

Not all of the spacer’s fever was faked, either.

Ahsoka grinned.

For a few more kilometers, she managed to coax out as much speed as her ride could give her, following the sweep of valleys and streams to keep from crashing. Finally, though, the terrain became too uneven for a speederbike. She reluctantly dialled back the throttle and coasted to a stop about where their detailed scanner data stopped. For safety’s sake she killed the antigrav and locked it to her fingerprints, then stood up and cracked her back.

This was all unofficial, of course. They’d decided against bringing surveyor’s speederbikes, which had mobile scanning units, because those were expensive and almost impossible to get even through military surplus so traders would have no reason to own them. Sure would be nice, though. Ahsoka was gonna have to do this the old-fashioned way.

 _Oh, no,_ she thought. _Poor me. I have to take a long meditative walk in the mountains on a beautiful morning._

She took a deep breath of cool, fresh air and rolled her shoulders. Welp. Time to get to work.

There wasn’t much out of the ordinary to take notice of, for a while. Ahsoka let her mind wander a bit as she vaulted over boulders, slid down steep slopes, and climbed a few trees to get a better view; but she didn’t sense any machinery that shouldn’t be there, any suspicious underground spaces that could indicate a storage drop, or any clearings or burn marks from landings to suggest clandestine pickups.

Just gorgeous forest, she thought as she sprawled out on a wide branch halfway up a tree. Clean unprocessed air, sweeping vistas, and a pretty girl.

Oh. Hey. That shouldn’t be here.

Ahsoka blinked and sat up as the human hiked over the crest of the mountain, looking around. No, no, not human. Olive-colored skin, and not figuratively either; humans didn’t come in green, so...Mirialan, probably, or Zabrak. The girl didn’t look dressed for this climate, not in long sleeves and a cape and thick full-length skirts. She certainly wasn’t dressed for a long walk. People weren’t supposed to live around here…

For a second Ahsoka was suspicious, but the Force felt calm around her. If she quieted her mind and listened, she could even feel a slight nudge, a Jedi urge to help. Belatedly, she was able to sense the exhaustion and stress rolling off the young woman in waves, and that made up her mind.

Ahsoka stood, only remembering at the last minute not to jump down. She could just imagine the look on Anakin’s face if she blew her cover because she was in too much of a hurry to say hello to a stranger in the woods.

“Morning!” she called instead, waving, and the girl jumped as she finally noticed Ahsoka’s presence. “Are you okay?”

The girl hesitated, then called up to her. “I’m afraid I’ve crashed. Can you tell me where I am?”

“Sure!” Ahsoka called down. “One second.”

_Sure would be a lot easier to jump, Skyguy._

She climbed down like a responsible Padawan, chatting to fill the silence. “There’s not much out here,” she confessed. “You got lucky, though, there’s a city a few hours out by speeder. I can give you a ride, if you like.”

The girl cocked her head. Definitely Mirialan, up close; those weren’t Zabrak tattoos. “Pardon?”

“To the main hub,” Ahsoka explained, looking down for another foothold. “I’ve got a speederbike not too far from here. Where were you trying to get to?”

The girl hesitated again.

“Anywhere,” she said after a second. “I have...family offworld. I don’t suppose you might have a comm unit?”

She did, actually, but it was back on the corvette and they were kind of pretending it was a standard commercial unit.

“Not on me,” Ahsoka hedged. “But once we get back, if you tell me where you’re trying to go I’ll see what I can do.”

She didn’t hesitate this time; she visibly flinched, and Ahsoka started to get a nasty suspicion that she knew what was going on here.

Deciding she’d done enough already to put on a show of being normal, she dropped out of the tree from just low enough that it probably wouldn’t look too weird, and turned to face the young woman normally.

She didn’t like what she saw. Young woman, alone in the mountains having crashed her speeder; that suggested she’d been in a hurry. And the wariness wasn’t normal either. And those long skintight sleeves and high collar in this weather were concerning, that was a classic method of hiding bruises. Couple that with her torn, dirty clothes, the marks on her face and determination to get offworld at any cost...

“Hey,” she said, this time going out of her way to sound safe and friendly. “It’s all right. You don’t know me, you don’t need to tell me anything. Nobody’s gonna hurt you. Look, what’s your name?”

There was that hesitation again, but only for a second.

“Barriss,” she said, with a slight smile. Ahsoka noticed the absence of a surname and decided not to ask.

“Nice to meet you.” She leaned back against the tree trunk so she wouldn’t be in Barriss’ space. “I meant it, you know.” At a curious look, she said quickly, “About, um, giving you a ride. It’s a little bit of a walk, but I could get you to a spaceport or something. Make sure you get offworld safely.”

“That’s...a very kind offer,” Barriss allowed.

Ahsoka smiled at her. “I like to help people. It’s okay. I promise I’m not gonna, like, kill and eat you on the way or anything. I’m heading back myself. Plenty of space for two people.”

A tousled head popped up at Barriss’ elbow.

“Hey, Barriss,” the little boy attached to it said. “What’s going on? Is everything okay?”

“Three people,” Ahsoka corrected.

“Does she know where we are?” asked the turquoise Twi’lek kid who’d just appeared next to the human.

“Four,” said Ahsoka doubtfully.

Another human, this one dark-skinned and female, ducked under one of Barriss’ arms.

“Do we really have a ride?” she asked eagerly.

Ahsoka waited a few seconds to make sure there would be no more unexpected arrivals before determining “...five. Five people.”

Barriss was distracted by the appearance of the youngli—children, Ahsoka mentally corrected herself. These ones, at least, looked more like locals. They could almost have been Jedi younglings, in fact, with loose-fitting tunics and synthleather vests, but their other clothes bore distinctive local markings. Caleb and the Twi’lek’s trousers were clearly too big for them, and the dark-skinned human wore a light coat in a man’s style that almost brushed the ground; but unlike Barriss’ clothing theirs was clean and obviously well-cared-for.

Ahsoka’s suspicions as to Barriss’ situation continued to grow, as did her estimation of the Mirialan’s character. She was taking good care of those kids. Whoever was hurting her, whoever she was afraid might be chasing them, they were gonna have to go through Ahsoka Tano to try it again.

“Caleb,” Barriss smiled. “I told you to wait with the others.”

“I did!” the little human boy said.

The girl agreed, “We decided to come too.”

“So we didn’t technically break the rules,” the Twi’lek added.

Barriss sighed.

“You’re a menace,” she informed them, but she was smiling so fondly that there was no way the kids took her seriously.

 _Wow,_ Ahsoka’s brain remarked helpfully. _She’s really pretty._

 _Shut up,_ she told it.

“Children,” Barriss said, gathering them in front of her. “This is…”

“Uh,” said Ahsoka, whose mind had gone blank. “Right. I’m, um.”

 _Like,_ really _pretty,_ said her brain.

In her mind’s eye, a vivid image of Anakin smirked at her.

Shut _up,_ she told them.

 _Her eyes are like sapphires,_ her brain insisted, and Ahsoka realized she'd been staring for several seconds too long.

“Um. I’m—Snips.” Her eyes widened. _“Ashla!_ My name’s Ashla.”

Barriss’ lips twitched. “A name for every occasion?”

The little Twi’lek cocked his head. “Ashla Snips?” he asked.

“Yup,” Ahsoka said weakly. “That’s me.”

Barriss gestured to the younglings. “These are my…my...little...”

“Cousins!” the human girl supplied.

Caleb raised his hand. When Ahsoka looked at him, he asked bluntly, “Can you really give us a ride? We’re lost. We don’t even know what planet we’re on!”

Barriss laughed nervously, putting an arm around his shoulder and pulling him close to ruffle his hair.

“That’s a slight exaggeration,” she said, “Isn’t it, Caleb? But not far from the mark. I’m afraid I never learned celestial navigation.” The admission seemed to pain her, for some reason. “I have no idea where to begin looking for civilization in this area.”

Ahsoka pictured her speederbike careening wildly off course and smashing into the side of a ravine.

“Right,” she said. “Here’s the thing. I, uh...I mean, I’ll point you in the right direction, but I don’t know if I’ve got room…”

“You could make two trips,” Caleb suggested. The other children shushed him.

Ahsoka winced. “I know I offered you a ride,” she said. “It’s just, my...uh, my boss, he’s expecting me back soon, and…”

Barriss gave a tight smile. Ahsoka could feel her disappointment in the Force, but there was no judgement in it, which only made her feel worse. Anakin’s probes might have worked, and she’d already spent too much time out here. Her master might need her.

“I understand,” the Mirialan said quietly. “It’s all right, Ashla. I do appreciate the offer, and we’re very lucky to have run into you at all. I think perhaps a miraculous rescue would have been too much to ask of—of the universe.”

“I’m really sorry,” Ahsoka said. “I don’t want to leave you out here by yourself, It’s just I don’t think I can manage more than…”

“A miraculous rescue for one?” Barriss suggested gently.

Ahsoka winced.

“Yeah.”

“I understand, Ashla. Truly. Can you tell us what direction…?”

Ahsoka sighed and pushed herself up straight.

“Yeah,” she said. “Yeah, of course. If you just go downhill and east, you’ll get out of the foothills, and then you’ll run into a road if you keep the sun at your back.”

“Thank you.” Barriss’ voice was gentle. “May the Force be with you.”

Ahsoka felt even more guilty, hearing those words come so innocently from the mouth of someone who needed the Force on her side much more than Ahsoka did.

“And with you as well,” she said, and tried not to look back as she walked back the way she’d come.

That lasted for about fifteen minutes before she stopped.

“What kind of Jedi _are_ you?” she said out loud, and turned to run after the little family.

* * *

“You really didn’t have to do this,” Barriss told her in an undertone.

Ahsoka looked over. For all her vocal assurance that she would be fine on her own, Barriss had not suggested that “Ashla” go back, and she’d been visibly relieved when Ahsoka caught up to her.

“Sure I did,” she said softly. Whatever Barriss heard in her voice, it made the other girl blush faintly.

“I. Well,” Barriss said. “I’m certainly glad to have met a local.”

The little girl whose name Ahsoka hadn’t learned yet nodded her agreement.

“I’ve decided I don’t like mountains,” she said.

Ahsoka grinned and gave a careless shrug, looking over at Barriss.

“I’m pretty good at finding my way around,” she said, rolling her neck. “But I’m not exactly a local.”

Barriss gave a curious half-smile. “Really? How so?”

“We travel,” Ahsoka explained. “Me and Lars—that’s my um, my employer—we’re traders, sort of. Mechanics. We fix and sell things, move on. So we’re only here for a few cycles.”

Barriss shot her a shrewd look, amusement spiking in the Force.

“Travelling mechanics and traders?” she asked tactfully. “Do you transport much scrap metal and machine repair parts?”

Ahsoka made a face at her. She didn’t have to pretend not to know _that_ euphemism. Most self-respecting smugglers didn’t even bother using it anymore, it was such a red flag in the Republic. Actually, since Ashla was a spacer, it’d be weird if she didn’t.

“I’ll have you know I’m a legitimate businesswoman,” Ahsoka said, elbowing Barriss in the side and making her laugh. She added a wink, because part of their cover was letting the locals suspect they might be running a smuggling operation on the side. With luck, one of those bacta runners would approach Anakin directly.

Barriss didn’t seem to hold her possible criminal activities against her, which should probably be a bad sign; there was a tinge of faint disapproval, nothing more than that.

“Whether that’s true or not,” the Mirialan said drily, “I really do appreciate your company, Ashla. And your directions!”

Ahsoka grinned. “One more than the other?”

“Hush.”

Ahsoka winked again and asked, “So what about you? How’d you end up with those guys?”

Barriss rubbed the palm of her hand anxiously. “They’re...family.”

Ahsoka waited a moment, then nodded.

“That’s all right,” she said. “I won’t ask.”

“Please, Ashla, it’s not that I don’t trust you, it’s just…”

“You’re not ready to talk about it,” Ahsoka said. “I get it. Plus, you’ve known me for, what, a few hours? Don’t worry about it.”

Barriss glanced over at her. “I realize you’ve...drawn some conclusions,” she started. “But I promise you, it’s really not as bad as—”

From where the younglings were walking in a group ahead of them, there were sudden exclamations of wonder.

“Barriss!” Caleb called.

“Come look at this!” shouted his Twi’lek friend.

Whatever Barriss had been about to say was forgotten as she hurried after the younglings. _“Caleb, whatever it is, don’t touch it!”_

“Oh, hey!” Ahsoka said when they caught up. “You guys found the bridge. That puts us about halfway there.”

“What is it?” asked the female human.

“It’s a bridge, Tai,” Caleb teased her. Ahsoka made a note of her name. She’d only gotten Caleb’s because Barriss kept calling it with varying levels of terror for his life.

Tai stuck her tongue out at her friend, and Ahsoka squeezed her shoulder.

She didn’t blame the younglings for staring. She’d been impressed too. They didn’t really have bridges on Coruscant. Or rather, they did, but they were pedestrian, and mostly they were energy bridges. A long, unbroken expanse of bright white duracrete over a drop of several hundred feet to the river below was not something she’d expected to see.

“I know what a bridge is,” Tai griped. “I meant what’s it for? All the way out here?”

“For transports, I imagine,” Barriss commented. “Even with antigravity, any kind of fully-loaded transport speeder would be too heavy to navigate the mountains. These kinds of antigrav rails are quite common, even far into the country, so that food and supplies can be exchanged. Emergency medical transports as well, if an airspeeder isn’t available.”

Ahsoka gave a low whistle. Talk about a rural planet. Needing something like that explained to them...well, she had too, at about her age, but she’d grown up on Coruscant. Kids from a city planet, or a desert world like Tatooine where the earth was hard and dry enough to carve roads out directly, maybe, but…

Force, had these younglings gotten to their teens without ever leaving...whatever backwoods they lived in?

“And it’s a lot easier to build across,” Ahsoka added to Barriss’ explanation, trying to get past her moment of concern for the younglings’ education. “They could use an energy bridge, but with how little maintenance duracrete needs, it’s a lot cheaper to just do it this way.”

“They could have put up some siderails,” Tai muttered as she peered cautiously over the side.

“I can’t disagree,” said Barriss, stepping cautiously onto the bridge. “But I’m sure it’s safe.”

“You jinxed it,” the Twi’lek told her.

Barriss laughed. “There’s no such thing, Sammo. Come along, little ones.”

To the surprise of no one, they crossed the bridge just fine. The bright duracrete road hooked around a low hill just on the other side, and Ahsoka spread her arms as they moved off the side, preparing to give the group their first glimpse of Darim City in the distance.

She paused and tilted her head. Her montrals were buzzing faintly, if she could only figure out what was causing it…

Barriss, misinterpreting her expression, turned around and called to Caleb, who had stopped a few meters out on the bridge and was kneeling at the edge, watching the distant river with innocent excitement.

Ahsoka realized two things in the same moment.

Caleb was still on the bridge, and the thing she was hearing was a large-transport groundspeeder travelling far faster than the legal limit.

“Caleb!” she shouted, lunging for the chasm. He looked up and made to stand, responding instantly to her tone, but it was already far too late to do anything, and the massive transport blew past them before Ahsoka could even yell a warning.

Its passage was close and fast enough that its slipstream tugged Sammo out into the road behind it; Ahsoka had flung an arm out to catch Barriss only to find the other young woman had done the same thing. The speeder was already across the gorge and screaming on its way before Ahsoka could cringe away from the impact.

It took her, and Barriss, several moments for their sick horror to give way to confusion. There was no blood, and there had been no sound of impact.

“I’m okay,” came Caleb’s voice.

Ahsoka stumbled to the edge of the drop, incredulous, and found Caleb clinging to the durasteel trellis supports ten feet down from the side of the bridge.

“I jumped,” he said, voice remarkably steady.

Barriss took a shuddering breath at Ahsoka’s side.

“You did very well, Caleb,” she said with feeling. “Can you climb back up?”

“Don’t,” Ahsoka said immediately. She might not be able to use her full abilities, but a Jedi would always be surer-footed than a civilian youngling. No way was she letting Caleb try this on his own. “Stay where you are, I’m coming to get you.”

Ignoring his and Barriss' protests, she swung out under the bridge and picked her way carefully down to where Caleb was.

“Not bad, kid,” she said, ruffling his hair as she slid into position. “You must have Jedi reflexes!”

Caleb gave a weak laugh. “Thanks.” Then he scowled. “Don’t call me kid.”

Ahsoka laughed softly. “Whatever you say, kid. Can you climb back up?”

Caleb glanced past her at Barriss, then sighed.

“Yeah,” he grumbled, and they made their slow, careful way back onto solid ground.

* * *

Barriss was beginning to hate lying to Ashla.

If she was honest with herself, she was almost certainly being paranoid. Her initial fear had been that the pirates might track them. That had led her to...acquire...some spare clothing from a pair of sleeping men generous enough to have a basket of laundry in the back room of their hunting lodge, the lock easily picked with the Force. It wouldn’t do much, but sometimes just a slight change from the expected was enough to let one pass in a crowd. When Ashla had turned up, clearly looking for something, the risk of her being a scout for the group that had been so determined to capture and sell young Jedi had been very real.

But that fear was gone now. Ashla seemed in every way exactly what she appeared to be; a generous, kindhearted young smuggler prone to spacer’s fever who loved children and was tender and reassuring with young women she perceived to be in danger. She couldn’t know it, of course, but Barriss had felt her fear for Caleb like a second knife in the gut, could still feel the concern and protective warmth Ashla was radiating toward all of them.

It felt profoundly dishonest to continue letting her _feel_ for them so earnestly over a lie, and Barriss was inclined to be truthful with her, but the real problem hadn’t gone away.

However pure _Ashla’s_ intentions, Barriss was still responsible for the safety of three younglings. She trusted Ashla’s character, but she didn’t know her well enough to speak to her discretion. Or, if they let their guard down, the discretion of anyone else who might overhear them talking, or draw conclusions for themselves.

There was more than one group in the mid rim willing to trade in on the ransom—or, Force forbid, the auction price—of three Jedi younglings. Better to be paranoid than take that risk.

Even if it made her heart ache to deceive someone who had been nothing but honest with them.

“You’ll like Darim,” Ashla told her encouragingly. The sun was beginning to set, but now they could see the lights of Darim City’s downtown, and Barriss estimated another hour at most would bring them to the heart of the city. “It’s big enough to have some real trade and options, but it’s not overwhelming. I mean, it’s not Nar Shadaa,” she said, flashing Barriss a grin. “That’d probably be a little much for you guys, wouldn’t it?”

Ah. Right. Barriss was meant to be a local farmer travelling offworld with her...cousins? Force, she was lucky Ashla was respecting her privacy so carefully.

“I’m sure,” she agreed, a few seconds too late, and tried to cover it with a smile. “And there’s a spaceport?”

“Yeah.” Ashla looked at her, and Barriss tried not to shrink back under the deep worry in those bright teal eyes. “And you’ve got somewhere to go? Don’t blast off without a plan. You can take some time in Darim to regroup, get your feet back under you.”

Barriss shook her head. “That’s not necessary. I really do have family on Coruscant.”

Ashla’s eyes brightened, and Barriss kicked herself as she remembered she hadn’t given a location earlier.

“Hey,” Ashla said eagerly. “Listen, don’t tell anyone this—we try not to advertise our schedule—but, our next stop is probably going to be Coruscant. I don’t know exactly when we’re leaving, but it won’t be too long. No charge, of course. If you’re not in too much of a hurry…”

Barriss thought about it. It wasn’t unreasonable, all things told. Even if they had to wait a week or two, in exchange for safe passage back to the Temple it might be her wisest option. However, Ashla had said “probably”. And while Barriss had some Republic credits that were always stocked in Jedi ships for emergencies, they were barely going to be enough to beg passage as it was, even assuming a sympathetic captain who was already headed to Coruscant anyway. If they paid for room and board for those two weeks and then Ashla’s employer changed his schedule, Barriss would be stranded.

She could also try contacting the Temple for pickup, but the odds of finding a communications array with that kind of power on this kind of planet were small. Oh, she was certain one existed, but it would take time to figure out where, and then to get there.

Once again she considered shedding the paper-thin pretense, but while Jedi authority might get her somewhere, she still felt...uneasy.

 _Giving in to fear is not the Jedi way,_ her master murmured in the back of her mind. Barriss acknowledged the wisdom of that, but as the day had gone on her sense of unease had only increased. She was certain that this was not mere paranoia. Something was wrong. There _was_ danger here.

She didn’t know what it was, or what form it took. But something was deeply wrong. And her job was to ensure the younglings’ safety.

“Thank you, Ashla,” she said. “I take that offer very kindly. But I’m afraid I can’t wait. My family is...they’re likely to worry, if I don’t arrive when I told them I would.”

Ashla frowned.

“They don’t seem to have worried very much about you being here in a bad situation,” she said. “Sounds to me like you could use a better family.”

“Ashla,” Barriss chided softly.

Ashla winced. “Right, right, I’m sorry,” she said. “I...sorry. I forget sometimes that not everybody can just fly off whenever they want. I guess transport from Coruscant’s expensive, huh?”

Barriss inclined her head, feeling a sharper stab of guilt. The truth was that, for once, she was certain the Jedi would expend all possible effort to find her, as losing three younglings and their chaperone on a Gathering mission would be horrific. They just didn’t know where she was; her hyperspace jump had been random. And now the young woman who had gone to so much effort to help them thought she’d insulted a poverty-stricken family.

“I appreciate the sentiment,” Barriss said honestly.

Ashla made an apologetic face, but accepted her attempt to move on from the awkward moment. “This is really the main hub,” she said. “You can go wherever you want from here. The spaceport’s about another half-hour walk, but it’ll be closed now.”

“I think we’ll go there anyway,” Barriss told her. “We’ll be there when it opens.”

Ashla hesitated, and glanced behind them.

Barriss’ guilt intensified, for entirely different reasons. The younglings had stepped up admirably, like true young Jedi; they hadn’t complained once, and they’d never asked to stop and rest. Barriss had heard their stomachs growling for miles, but not one of them had said a word.

But they were exhausted. They were only children, after all, and children who hadn’t eaten in almost twenty-four hours at that. Children who’d slept in wet clothes on a hard floor the night before, and never complained about that either. They’d been silent for hours as they plodded dutifully in Barriss’ wake—even Caleb. They were all but dead on their feet, and their misery was palpable.

“Listen,” Ashla said, lowering her voice for Barriss’ ears alone. “The kids can barely keep their eyes open. I know you don’t want charity, but...come with me, okay? I’ve got some credit built up at a little place not far from here. Let me get you dinner, at least. You can spend the night on the ship. You don’t have to do this on your own anymore.”

“I couldn’t,” Barriss protested. “Ashla, you’ve done too much for us already—”

Ashla gave her a stern look.

Barriss wavered for a long moment. It was wrong of her to accept generosity under false pretenses, but at the same time it would be churlish to refuse a kindness freely offered.

And there was the younglings to think of.

“...Thank you,” she said, and Ashla smiled.

* * *

“And just, put it on my tab, okay? Thanks, Skat.”

The owner of “Ashla”’s favorite hole in the wall waved her off in a friendly manner. The Sullustan was a little rough around the edges, but he was a former “legitimate trader” himself and he’d taken a liking to Ashla.

Ahsoka had a sneaking suspicion that her tab would be a lot lighter than the price of whatever Barriss’ group ended up actually getting; Skat loved kids, and these ones were slowly coming back to life in the multicolored lights and smooth, calm background music of the cantina. She was about to join them when Skat tapped her elbow.

“Your boss, kid,” he said, raising his voice slightly over the music.

Ahsoka looked over her shoulder toward the open door, and winced at Anakin’s expression.

“Haha,” she said. “Kriff. Thanks. Uh, I’ll be in tomorrow or the day after, all right?”

Skat’s dewflaps twitched up in a smile. “I know you’re good for it, Ashla, no worries. Those kids aren’t leaving until they’re full.”

“Make sure their mother eats too,” she told him. “Or...whatever she is to them.”

She didn’t buy “cousins.” Yeah, yeah, family was more than blood, obviously, but, come on. She wasn’t born yesterday.

“Stop hovering!” Skat laughed and waved her off. “They’re fine with me, go do your job.”

Ahsoka plastered a sheepish grin on her face as she ducked under Anakin’s arm and out of the cantina.

“Hey...Lars!”

“Have a nice walk?” he asked drily.

“Okay, so,” she said. “I can explain…”

“Did you find anything unusual in your survey?” Anakin asked her.

“Well…no.”

Anakin looked at her.

“Did you finish your survey.”

Ahsoka winced again. “Well, I...okay, so, about that…”

Anakin shook his head.

“There were extenuating circumstances,” he guessed.

“She needed help!”

He looked sceptical. “You sure she’s not involved with the smugglers?”

Ahsoka shook her head. “Definitely not. She didn’t even know where she was, and she wasn’t lying.”

Anakin nodded. “Just making sure. I’ve got some intel that says they’ve got a meeting place somewhere in those mountains, a hunting lodge they’ve taken over, but it sounded like the part we already scanned. And you didn’t see anything today?”

“No.” Ahsoka thought about it. “Actually, there was a groundspeeder transport heading out of the city that was in quite a hurry. Most pilots would at least slow down if they almost ran over a little kid. It was...almost like they didn’t want anyone to be able to recognize them.”

Anakin’s expression was grim. “Well,” he said. “I’ve got a lead on their next shipment out of the city. It should be tonight, and then the ship takes off. We’ll follow the transport, find these guys, and put an end to it.”

“Right.” Time to get back to work. “What time?”

“Oh-three hundred.” Anakin checked his chrono. “I’m going over there now; I want us both in position in two hours, so eat something and get ready.”

* * *

Barriss couldn’t remember the last time she had eaten anything quite this good.

It wasn’t that the food itself was anything special. It was cantina fare, the same kind of thing you could get anywhere in the galaxy. But it was cantina fare in all its glory: large portions, simple tastes, and stuffed with enough calories to be mildly alarming if you hadn’t gone almost two days without a meal. A cheese-and-vegetable pie and a bottomless glass of java juice was enough to make Barriss think she might have died and become one with the Force.

Far more than the food, however, was the relief pouring in on all sides from her brave younglings. She hadn’t realized how stressed and afraid they’d all been until the warmth and food and music had driven it away.

Ashla had been right, she thought. Her own Jedi hangups had insisted that the short-term suffering was necessary and could be overcome, but sometimes acting based on simple feelings like hunger and unhappiness in order to alleviate them was a much wiser decision. There was nothing admirable in making herself unhappy solely because she thought she was supposed to.

She jolted slightly as she realized someone had spoken to her.

“I’m sorry,” she said to the pair of older Twi’lek women at the next table, who were watching her expectantly. They looked related; both very delicate pastel shades of purple, though one was more blue-tinged and the other almost pinkish. “Did you say something? I’m afraid I’m rather distracted this evening.”

The women laughed, not unkindly.

“Not to worry, dear,” one of them assured her.

The other continued, “We were just admiring your lovely children!”

Barriss inclined her head. “Thank you,” she said, then flashed a tentative smile. “Don’t admire them too loudly, they’re convinced enough of their invincibility as it is.”

“I heard that,” Sammo told her from across the table. The Twi’leks laughed. Well, giggled might be the better term.

“Oh, as they should be!” said the first.

“Let humility come later,” the second agreed warmly. “Children _should_ be confident, my dear. Especially such well-behaved ones.”

Caleb visibly preened.

“They don’t know you,” Tai reminded him with a grin. The pair of women tittered again.

“May I ask…” the pink one hedged. Barriss tensed, but it didn’t seem noticeable, as the other continued without pause.

“If it’s not too indelicate, of course.”

“Yes, of course. The...father?”

Barriss gave a soft sigh of relief.

“No longer in the picture,” she said honestly.

The blue Twi’lek tutted. “I’m terribly sorry, dear. Still, you’re doing quite well, I should think.”

Pink nodded her agreement. “Oh, quite. Indeed. Especially with our little Ashla to help out now, of course.”

Barriss opened and closed her mouth.

“Yes,” she decided on. “Ashla’s been very helpful.”

“Helpful,” laughed Pink.

“A funny thing to say about one’s partner,” Blue agreed, and they tittered again.

Barriss was grateful that the lights in the cantina were fairly dim and constantly shifting, but somehow she still doubted it was enough to hide her blush.

“Ah,” she said, as grins spread slowly across the younglings’ faces. “Yes, well...I am not precisely her partner.”

The women blinked and fixed her with a far more focused look.

“Mmm.” Blue’s eyes narrowed. “What does ‘precisely’ mean? Either you are, or you’re not.”

“Her fiancee, then,” Pink said sharply.

“Yeah, Barriss,” said Tai, with an impish grin. “What are you?”

 _I’m the person who’s going to put a citation in your Temple record for insubordination,_ Barriss thought uncharitably in her direction, then rubbed her face.

“Ma’am,” she said to Blue, “I’m afraid you misunderstand the situation. I have no such arrangement with Ashla, I…”

 _Only met her today_ trailed off into the delicate horn music as the suddenly suspicious ladies put their heads together. Lekku flicked and twisted as they whispered to each other. Barriss knew very little of that particular branch of Twi’lek communication, but she recognized signs for disapproval and skepticism, as well as one particularly rude signal associated with promiscuity, which she thought was unnecessary.

“If I may,” she said irritably.

“Taking advantage,” she heard from the pair’s ongoing conversation. “Trifler” followed it, along with “ticket offworld, do you think?” “unfaithful if you ask me,” “shifty eyes,” “playing on the poor thing’s honor, with those children,” and “too sweet a girl to be manipulated by some…” the last word of which was unintelligible. Barriss could use her imagination.

“Hey,” Caleb announced loudly before Barriss could stop him. “My—uh, my _cousin’s_ not preying on an unsuspecting soul because she doesn’t respect honest work, whatever that means.”

“I think they think she’s—”

 _“Thank you, Sammo!”_ Barriss said quickly. Turning to the startled women, she took time to make sure her tone would end up being polite. “I’m terribly sorry,” she told them. “I think you misunderstand. Ashla is...a friend of course, but we’ve only just met today. My speeder crashed, I was alone with the children and she was kind enough to assist us. I’m very grateful to her, and I admit I rather resent the implication that she needed any reason to offer us that help other than her own character.”

That was true, she found to her own surprise. The aspersions on herself were irritating, but not enough to anger her. It always stung, as a Jedi, to meet people who were unwilling or incapable of understanding that genuine compassion and altruism existed in the galaxy. Barriss _certainly_ owed Ashla a defense of her moral fiber, at the very least.

To their credit, the pair of women did at least seem to have taken the admonishment seriously. They murmured their apologies, and used the opportunity to segue into a long dialogue between themselves about how terribly fond they’d become of the young spacer, and, oh, by the way my dear, she _does_ seem to be single, you really _ought_ to consider it if you haven’t already...

Barriss sighed.

“I’m gonna get a refill,” Caleb announced. Barriss waved her permission with one hand before burying her head in her arms.

She really missed the Temple. Master Luminara only occasionally went into busybody mode about Barriss needing to make friends, and she was always much less...this...about the whole thing.

Caleb yelped, and Barriss’ head snapped back up in time to see him covered in juice and making an embarrassed face up at Ashla.

“Hey there,” she grinned. “Haven’t we met before?”

“Slipped on ice,” he explained.

Ashla set him back on his feet and held out a hand to Barriss, who was already standing to greet her. Barriss accepted it gratefully; there was simply no dignified way to slide out of a cantina booth.

“Did you have enough to eat?” Ashla asked before she could say anything.

Barriss had to smile at that.

“Yes,” she assured her. “Thank you, again.”

Ashla inclined her head and stepped back to include the two older women. “Oh, you guys met! Barriss this is Liagiba and Ailema, they’re sisters. And this is Barriss, Caleb, Tai and Sammo.” There was a chorus of greetings. Ashla bowed charmingly to the Twi’leks before continuing, “Girls, if you’re done interrogating my friends here...they’ve had a long day, and they’re getting up early tomorrow. Mind if we get going?”

 _Thank you,_ Barriss mouthed fervently at her as Liagiba and Ailema granted their long, enthusiastic, and endlessly-amusing-to-themselves permission for the group to withdraw. As much as she’d enjoyed a chance to relax before resting, it was late, and she ached for sleep.

She sighed with relief as they stepped into the cool, quiet night air.

Ashla reached over and brushed her fingers over Barriss’ elbow, offered an arm, and Barriss accepted it without thinking. She felt the younglings’ mixed amusement and approval, children innocently happy that she was happy; she shook her head at it, but didn’t drop Ashla’s arm. There was no need to read into it. The long day and sleepless night were finally taking their toll, and the support was as appreciated as the comfort.

Ashla and her employer’s blockade runner was stowed among a cluster of warehouses not far from the cantina. She was a surprisingly spacious vessel, with surprisingly little cargo inside; but then, they’d been here several weeks, and had likely sold whatever it had been. And there were spare cabins. Sparse, of course, but there were real mattresses and pillows and blankets for everyone, even if they were cheap. The younglings collapsed into their bunks almost before thanking Ashla for the use of her ship.

Yet another weight Barriss hadn’t realized she was carrying lifted from her shoulders.

Ashla had disappeared politely while Barriss was seeing the younglings to bed, and that, Barriss couldn’t bear. She didn’t know what it was that drove her to duck out of the blockade runner and rush after the remarkable Togruta, but she knew she couldn’t bear to disappear without saying _something._

Ashla startled when Barriss caught up with her just outside the warehouse district, but smiled warmly when she recognized her and slowed her pace so that Barriss could walk beside her.

Barriss only smiled a little at the irony. A spacer, slowing down so as not to overtax the Jedi at her side.

 _I’m sorry,_ she thought, though the guilt was fainter now, easing to a soft sense of regret. _I wish I didn’t have to lie to you._

“Little ones asleep?” Ashla asked quietly. Fondness welled up in the Force. “They looked beat.”

Barriss laughed under her breath. “They could hardly keep their eyes open.”

“Neither can you,” Ashla observed with a wry smile.

Barriss smiled and shook her head. “I couldn’t let you leave without…”

To her shock, she found her throat had closed up.

“Hey.” Ashla stopped and turned to her, taking her hands gently. “Hey, it’s okay. You’re okay.”

“Thank you,” Barriss whispered. “I can’t tell you how grateful I am. I won’t say I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t come along, but…”

Her own emotions had come as a shock; Ashla gently guiding her into her arms, somehow, felt like the most natural thing in the world.

“You’d have figured it out,” Ashla said, a smile in her voice. Barriss closed her eyes and leaned into her, knowing full well how wrong it was to place her burdens on, of all people, a civilian spacer. “You’re smart and you’re tough. You just don’t have to be all the time.” She stepped back, and Barriss didn’t know whether to be grateful that Ashla had taken the initiative in respecting her personal space or in pain over the loss of her support.

Burnt-orange fingers adjusted Barriss’ hood as Ashla smiled at her.

“It’s okay to let people help you,” she said, watching Barriss’ expression. “Just because you don’t need help doesn’t mean you have to do everything the hard way.”

Barriss had to smile.

 _“You_ certainly seem to have a talent for forming connections,” she observed.

Ashla shrugged, embarrassed.

“I’m good at reading people,” she said. “And most people, you can trust ‘em. Not everyone, I mean, trust your instincts, but…”

“I know what you mean,” Barriss assured her. “I struggle with it myself, but...yes." Casting around for something to say before the silence got too painful, she asked, "And your...employer, he does treat you well, doesn't he...?"

Ashla gave a wide, fond smile, eyes softening.

"Yeah," she said. "He's a little emotional, kind of rough around the edges sometimes, but his heart's in the right place. He's loyal to a fault, you know? And if you ever need help, you couldn't ask for a better friend."

"It seems to run in the family," Barriss breathed.

For a few seconds too long, they stood there—the back of Ashla’s fingers resting against Barriss’ cheek, Barriss’ hands still braced on her shoulders.

“I…” Barriss took a step back, folding her hands behind her back. “Thank you, again. For your help, and...your ship is lovely, thank you for letting us...”

“Don’t mention it.” Ashla reached out as if to squeeze Barriss’ arm, then seemed to think better of it. She gave one of the lopsided grins that Barriss had discovered over the course of the day were contagious. “Those kids, I mean...I love ‘em.”

Barriss couldn’t look her in the eye anymore, not with the other girl’s heart shining out through them. “They’re very fond of you, as well. As are...well, all of your friends, from what I gathered.”

Ashla gave an awkward laugh. “Oh...yikes. Yeah, the twins are...like that.”

Barriss bit her lip to fight back an inappropriate smile.

“I don’t imagine we’ll see you tomorrow,” she said.

Ashla looked pained. “You can stay,” she said. “We’d be happy to have you. Don’t go off on your own.”

Barriss ignored years of training to reach out and take Ashla’s hand.

“Thank you,” she said earnestly. “I wish I could, but...there are a lot of things I can’t talk about, not here. I have to leave first thing in the morning. If I ever see you again…”

Ashla’s sad smile said she knew as well as Barriss did that it would never happen.

“Yeah,” she said. She squeezed Barriss’ hand, then let go. “Hey. You know best. And...your eyes really are like sapphires, you know.”

The local busybodies were entirely right, Barriss thought bitterly. She should know better than to have let herself court this kind of emotional connection. It wasn’t fair to Ashla.

“I should go,” she whispered.

Ashla sighed. “Stay safe out there, Barriss. And, listen...may the Force—”

_“Ahsoka!”_

Ashla’s eyes flew wide, and she scrambled to pull a comm unit out of her pocket. Republic standard, which surprised Barriss, but then again, they were smugglers. Secure communication must be important.

“Uh,” she said, sounding nervous, “Hey, Lars, I’m here, I was on my way.”

 _“Forget it!”_ The man on the other end barked. _“They must’ve been tipped off I was here, they ran for it! I don’t know where they went, but they were heading for the warehouse district, get ready for an intercept!”_

“On it!” Ashla whirled back to face Barriss, a miserable apology on her face. “Listen, I’m so sorry, but—I’ll explain in a minute, okay? We’ve got drug runners and I need to—”

She was cut off by the rumble of starship engines, not close by, but certainly not in the distance, either.

Ashla’s face went nearly white. Barriss understood a second later.

Whatever was going on, a smuggling ring had been spooked and broken for a getaway ship. And the only starship available close by was…

They spun in horror as the red-painted blockade runner started to rise over the warehouses and swing around for an escape.

* * *

Ahsoka didn’t think.

It was her fault the bacta smugglers had gotten loose, it had been her idea to put a bunch of helpless kids and their caretaker alone on an unguarded ship while she knew she was in the middle of a potentially dangerous undercover mission. And once that ship got in the air, those kids were gone.

The only thing that saved them was that the corvette didn’t know she was here. It was doing the smart thing, making its swing on the vector that would take it directly away from Anakin—and right over Ahsoka’s head.

She acted on that split-second realization, called on the Force, and launched herself into the air.

For the purposes of cover, she’d traded in her usual clothes for a more galactic-standard tunic and a pair of mechanic’s cargo pants that conveniently allowed her to stick her lightsabers in one of the deep pockets. She somersaulted in midair as she leapt to meet the stolen ship, tugging them out with the Force, and ignited them halfway through the roll.

She hit the hull hard, and went to her knees on top of the ship rather than try to stick the landing. The hand holding her shoto slammed to the bulkhead, but her primary was swept out behind her, holding her balance as the ship lifted over the Darim skyline.

Pretty nice landing, if there’d been anyone to see it, she thought.

Then she looked up.

“...No,” she said, staring at the other Jedi braced on the corvette’s hull, down on one knee with her saber held over her head.

Barriss stared back.

“No _way!”_ Ahsoka exclaimed.

_“All this time?”_

“You’re joking!”

“I mean, the odds alone!”

Ahsoka’s mouth worked for a few minutes, and then she started laughing.

“A lot of things just started making sense,” she admitted.

Barriss gave a weak smile. “I apologize for the deception, but…”

“You’re a terrible liar, you know.”

“Ashla.”

Ahsoka rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I know, so am I. It’s Ahsoka, by the way. Ahsoka Tano.”

Barriss laughed and shook her head. “Padawan learner Barriss Offee,” she said. “At your service. But, Ash—Ahsoka.”

“Yeah?”

Barriss gestured around them. “It’s getting cold?”

There were clouds whipping past the corvette, actually.

Ahsoka winced. “Right.”

She was about to cut a hole in the hull when Barriss leaned over and stopped her. Before Ahsoka could say anything, Barriss had swung one-handed _over the side of a starship in flight several thousand feet above the surface of the planet,_ who _was_ this girl. and made a single precise cut through the airlock controls.

“We may as well preserve the structural integrity of the ship,” she said brightly once Ahsoka had climbed through after her. Then, “What?”

“You’re something else,” Ahsoka decided, grinning. “Okay. Get everybody out, fast, before they go into hyperspace. They can have the ship, it’s a Jedi corvette. We’ll track it.”

Barriss nodded sharply.

“And then,” Ahsoka told her, jabbing her in the shoulder, “We’re gonna go back to Skat’s and you’re introducing yourself for real!”

Barriss flushed and put a hand over her face.

“Deal,” she said, and she was smiling.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] Going My Way](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10775724) by [Writers_Block](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Writers_Block/pseuds/Writers_Block)




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